Under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), patients have a right to a copy of their medical records, generally without charge*.
As a business, and as part of the NHS, we do aim to keep our costs down. In order to help us do this, there are a number of options to get a copy of your medical record. The options, their associated costs to the surgery, and the advantages and disadvantages to the patient are described in this leaflet.
*For more information, please see Subject Access Request Policy
Option one: online access
If you have internet access, you can apply for online access to your medical records. A copy of this form is available on our website, or can be collected from reception. You will need to bring two forms of ID with the completed form.
Advantages:
- you have “live” access to your records—each time you have a new medication prescribed, a new consultation with the surgery, a new allergy added, or a new blood test result, your copy of the medical records is updated with the information
- the cost to the surgery is one-off and minimal (cost of checking your notes prior to allowing access)
- you can view your health records wherever you are, for example, if you are seeing a consultant who has a query about one of your medications you can look it up on your phone
- if you need a new copy of your notes for another reason, you don’t have to wait a month to get it
- online access to your records has other advantages, the main one being it allows you to take better control of your health
Disadvantages:
- internet access needed
- electronic copy of notes
- record is a summary of notes prior to 2000 as access is to electronic record only
Option two: electronic records
If you were born before the year 2000, part of your medical record is likely to be on paper (“Lloyd George” notes). Prior to computerisation, surgeries recorded consultations on paper notes. Now notes are electronic, and anything significant from your old paper notes is summarised and added to your electronic record. If you wish to have a copy of your notes, you can ask for just your electronic notes.
Advantages:
- this information can be sent to you by email quickly and easily
- it is a cost-efficient way for the surgery to provide access to notes as it involves checking your notes, then the computer generates an automatic copy of the notes
Disadvantages:
- this is not a full copy of your records (unless you were born after the year 2000) prior to that date the record is a summary only
Option three: full copy of records
The final option is to request a full copy of your records, both electronic and paper. This is the option which uses the most resource in the surgery as the notes taken from the archive, checked by hand, photocopied by hand, then the full notes are checked and copies made.
Advantages:
- this is the complete version of your medical notes
Disadvantages:
- resource-heavy and costly for the surgery to produce
While we appreciate there are occasions when you would need a copy of your full notes, we would ask that this option is only used where it is genuinely needed over and above the other two options. Please help us to help you!